Chinese restaurants are ubiquitous across the United States. So much so that they actually outnumber McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC combined. But despite the fact that they are common and just about everywhere, so little is still known about these restaurants. This lack of information has often led the general public to assume stereotypes about the food and the cooks, usually towards the negative. These negative stereotypes have been pervasive and have created even more hurdles for Chinese restaurants to succeed than the average restaurant. Everyone knows the stereotypes, “the food isn’t fresh” , “MSG is bad for you” , and “their food is cheap so it can’t be good”. While I can’t speak for all Chinese restaurants I can say that these claims are pretty much patently false, even the MSG thing is usually falsely associated by people (it’s in a lot of things you eat all the time).
As a lover of Chinese food (or Chinese American food) I’ve always wondered what it’s like to run a Chinese restaurant and how they owners feel about the challenges that they face in running a Chinese restaurant. I was inspired by Serious Eat’s write up about Indian food buffets, so I sought out my favorite restaurant in the area, Hunan Legend, I wanted to hear their story and share it with you all. I had the good fortune of speaking with the Owner and their daughter, over that time I was able to gain a rich understanding of their backstory, how the restaurant runs, the challenges that are posed by running a restaurant, and the stereotypes they have to overcome everyday with their restaurant.
The Backstory
The Owner’s of Hunan Legend, Tammie and Boone Lee arrived to the U.S. in the mid 1980s from Malaysia. Now you’re probably asking, but they made a Chinese restaurant aren’t they Malaysian? Well yes and no, they explained to me that they are in fact Chinese Malaysian, much like I’m Iranian-American. They were born in Malaysia, which has a very large Chinese population, consequently they consider themselves Chinese Malaysian. The desire to come to America was rooted in seeking out a better life for themselves and their families.
The executive chef of the restaurant, Boone Lee, had been cooking since he was 10 years old so when he arrived to America cooking and starting his own his own restaurant was a natural fit for him. Meanwhile, Tammie Lee worked as a white collar worker in Malaysia so running the front of the house suited her skill-set as well. Together they sought to create delicious food while providing a great life for their family.
Hunan Legend was opened in 1996, the location came based upon a recommendation from a customer/friend who told Tammie about the location and that it would be a good spot for a restaurant. Meanwhile the now famous name, Hunan Legend, as a more humorous backstory. Hunan is a common name in the Chinese restaurant business due to the fact that Hunan is region in China and popular cooking style, but the Legend part is where the comedy comes into play. Tammie laughed as she described the backstory, basically she picked legend because she had a car at the time that she really liked, an Acura Legend, and she said well Hunan Legend sounds good and that was that. Hunan Legend was born.
When the restaurant first opened in 1996 it was actually more of a traditional take-out style shop that was just a counter with the pictures of the different dishes on the large light board. However a few months in the Owners realized that patrons would prefer to dine-in so they re-designed the location and turned it into a large dining area with booths. The full service restaurant has become a staple in the Dorsey Hall Village Center, outlasting massive food chains, worldwide video stores, and party supply stores that took up residency in and around their restaurant during the past 22 years. Over the 22 years they have been in business at this location, the Owners have had the unique joy of meeting new members of the community and watching them grow from young adults, to parents, and ultimately sometimes to grandparents. They take pride in the fact that Hunan Legend has become a fixture in the surrounding area and many residents view Hunan Legend as a meeting place to commemorate anniversaries, graduations, or to just share a Saturday night meal with friends.
Tammie and Boone’s children would also help in the restaurant throughout the restaurants history, their daughter recounted bussing tables as a kid and spending her earnings at the shops next door in the village center. All of their children speak fondly of the restaurant and they have all had some role helping their parents along the way in the family business.
How the business runs and the challenges it faces.
Running a (successful) restaurant is easily one of the most challenging jobs in all of business, countless champions of industry have tried and failed to make it in the restaurant game. Chinese restaurants such as Hunan Legend face numerous challenges in running their business and running a fine-tuned machine is essential to their success. The back of the house (the Kitchen) is run by Boone, cooking since he was 10 years old, he has a innate knack for cooking. He trains the entire kitchen staff, and requires them to work their way up to cooking entrees on the wok just like any other kitchen would. Unfortunately due to some unfair stereotypes, many people just assume that these sort of things just don’t happen. As a small business, their head chef wears many hats aside from being an owner of the restaurant he’s also the buyer of all ingredients for the restaurant. He works tirelessly to source the best ingredients possible, often traveling around the state to go to boutique international markets to source the right ingredient that isn’t available with a regular supplier.
Many people often joke that if you order anything from a Chinese restaurant, it only takes 15-20 minutes no matter what. While this joke is rooted in unfair stereotypes that the food isn’t fresh, the reality of the situation is that everything is painstakingly prepped just like any other restaurant would do prior to dinner service (more on this later). The genius of Chinese cuisine is that there are a few mother sauces, that can be altered and refined rapidly allowing for a variety of dishes to be made in short notice. This simplicity allows for almost unlimited customization (within reason), the staff is often fine with customization because usually it’s just swapping out one protein for another or taking out vegetables. They’re also able to make other dishes that are not on any of the menus, if you give them enough time and preparation they’re willing to make whatever you want.
As society and diner’s tastes have changed they’ve had to adapt in order to survive, whether that’s been gluten-free, technology, or vendors aging out, the restaurant is always tasked with evolving with the times.
Everyone and their mom is gluten-free these days, whether that’s real or imagined, when people have dietary restrictions they are always willing to work with their customers to make sure they can eat something at the restaurant. Fortunately, most Chinese dishes are gluten free unless they have a brown sauce, which are often thickened with flour or have gluten in the sauce. The simplicity of the food preparation allows them to customize dishes in a way that would alleviate allergy concerns. Going beyond gluten sensitivities, Hunan Legend has also adapted for the Vegans of the world, with entirely meatless dishes that often taste better than the real thing. Try the “meatless” sesame chicken. It’s amazing.
Technology has been a driving force in the restaurant industry, from food delivery apps to reservation apps almost every aspect of the customer experience in a restaurant has been digitized. Chinese restaurants are not immune to these changes, Hunan Legend has tried to change as best as they can with a phone app that allows for online ordering. Much to their surprise, the phone app has been a great success for the restaurant. They initially only planned to try the app out on a temporary basis, but the influx of orders that came through the app and the ability to clearly understand what the order is has caused them to make the app a mainstay of their business. The negative of the technology side is usually the online reviewers, a necessary evil now in the restaurant world, these online review websites often unfairly paint a distorted picture of restaurants that is one sided. Their strategy has been one of avoidance, knowing that they can never get the last word in they choose to just avoid responding to online reviews.
Besides dietary restrictions and changing technology, the other biggest challenge they face is maintaining quality as prices rise, suppliers retire, and as customer expectation remains the same regarding cost.
Food prices are constantly rising these days, especially meat, and restaurants across the country are posed with the problem of having to maintain high quality standards while keeping prices affordable. That dilemma strikes ethnic restaurants more so than let’s call them “American” restaurants. Why is that? Because almost everyone has the built-in (unfair) expectation that ethnic food must be cheap. Nobody is willing to shell out 35 dollars for an order of General Tso’s chicken, but they wouldn’t hesitate to pay that for one boneless chicken thigh “marinated in buttermilk” and fried with some piss poor sides. Just as much if not more skill is required to make General Tso’s than the other dish, but people just wont pay it. It’s a damn travesty, but that’s the state of the restaurant business and the psyche of the diner. Chinese restaurant owners aren’t stupid. They realize this. So they must walk a very delicate tight rope increasing their prices ever so slightly so that they still make a profit on their menu items.
If keeping prices down wasn’t hard enough, maintaining your suppliers seems to be even harder, and Chinese restaurants are not immune to this either. The Owners told me how many of their key suppliers who provided things like almond cookies have aged out and no longer sell their product. Consequently the restaurant no longer sells the cookies, this scenario is a microcosm of the dilemma they face all the time, people age out and retire and new relationships can be difficult to start with suppliers. This dilemma applies to customers as well as they’ve noticed some customers have moved away as they’ve gotten older and edged closer to retirement.
Apart from the challenges they face in the industry, the Chinese restaurant business is centered around carry-out. Hunan Legend is no different, Carry-out makes up a majority of their business, except around the holiday season. They declared that Christmas Eve and Day are the two busiest days of the year and can have upwards of a 45 minute wait to dine-in. They recommend to order online on those days to avoid the wait. Despite carry-out being their most popular dining option, they recommend and I totally agree, that you should dine in the restaurant to get the best experience, the food just tastes better when it’s brought right to you rather than having to sit in a container.
The Menu
Setting up your menu as a Chinese restaurant is a dangerous dance, why? Because if you don’t have enough of the classics (beef and broccoli, general tso’s, sesame chicken, etc. etc.) you will lose out on the built in audience that Chinese food has, many people have their favorites and never budge, on the flip side you run the risk of being labeled as completely inauthentic and derisively called “not Chinese”. The folks at Hunan Legend realize this, as savvy business people they’ve created a menu that’s balanced with the classics and some dishes that are more authentic to Cantonese/Chinese-Malaysian cuisine. They often will add their own touches to various dishes to give them a unique Hunan Legend spin, this is especially true with their cashew chicken which is by far the best I’ve had. Served in a rich sweet brown sauce that has hints of plum sauce and Hoisin sauce, the chicken is served with just cashews. This simple dish is heaven on earth for me.
For the people who really want the deep cuts, they have what has been affectionately called the, “Secret Menu” or “Chinese Menu”, this menu does in fact exist they explained to me. The menu exists to satisfy the customers who want more traditional dishes that either don’t appeal to the average diner or the average diner is completely unaware they wouldn’t know to order it anyways. The menu first existed as a Chinese menu, but slowly as word got round, it was translated into English and now it is available upon request when you dine in or if you carryout. What’s on this menu? They said that it’s a lot of traditional Cantonese dishes and Malaysian dishes that are some of their favorites. They highlighted three dishes that I got to try for myself, the Jalapeno Pork, the Hot Pot Fish, and the Beef Chow Foon Noodles, all three are items I would never think to order and they were all delicious. Another dish they recommended that has gained traction in popularity was the salt & pepper pork/shrimp dish, this fragrant fried dish was a favorite of the family’s.
Traditional Chinese vs. American Chinese
So what’s the big difference between authentic versus Americanized Chinese? They explained it as really primarily a lot less sauce and a lot less fried, authentic Chinese and Chinese-Malaysian incorporates a lot stir-fry, garlic, and light usage of sauce while Americanized Chinese food is often heavily reliant on sauce and many dishes are fried. Tammie explained to me that actual Chinese food rarely uses soy sauce as a base for the sauce, rather it’s often used as just a condiment to salt the food. While foodie culture has expanded to the outer reaches of the suburbs, when it comes to Chinese food many people often just want what they know, the folks at Hunan Legend know this, so they’re always fine tuning the menu to make sure the classics are there. For those of you out there who want to try new things, the staff recommended that you either ask them by giving them some insights into what you usually like which allows them to guide you another dish you might enjoy.
You can guess what the best selling dishes are on their menu. General Tso’s the boy band of Chinese take-out, is still by far the favorite for their diners, other dishes like pork fried dumplings, sesame chicken, and hot crispy beef/chicken are other Americanized Chinese favorites. But what about the secret menu? That’s gained popularity over the years and as a result they’ve seen a rise in orders of jalapeno pork and hot pot fish.
The Stereotypes
As times have changed and patrons palettes have evolved, Hunan Legend has had to keep up with the fickle nature of the customer. The invisible enemy are the built-in stereotypes that they must combat on a daily basis. Like fighting a war against a ghost, Chinese restaurant owners often have to deal with unfair biases about their food, staff, and their business. Let’s address them one by one.
Food Is Not Fresh
This is by far the biggest misconception about Chinese food. Again I can’t speak for all other restaurants, but Hunan Legend and their Owners are very particular about sourcing only the best quality ingredients. All of their suppliers are local with the furthest coming from New York or Philadelphia. They have food vendors making deliveries every day with fresh seafood, meat, poultry, and produce. Nothing is frozen (including the fish) and nothing is pre-cut. That General Tso’s you love so? It’s butchered by hand from a whole chicken. Those pork fried dumplings? Dough made from scratch everyday and wrapped individually again by hand. The filling again is made in house. You get the point. People like to assume that nothing is fresh, but that’s really an insult to folks like Boone and Tammie who put their whole lives into these restaurants.
Food Is Not Healthy
Everyone thinks Chinese food isn’t healthy. And let’s all agree that eating General Tso’s everyday isn’t the best for you. But who is actually doing that? Who’s eating spaghetti and meatballs everyday and staying trim and fit? Yeah that’s what I thought, nobody. If you eat the most decadent meal in any culture, the food’s going to be unhealthy. But the reality of the situation is that Chinese food is actually incredibly healthy and full of nutrients. If you know what to order, you’re getting lean proteins, fresh veggies, and a sauce that’s not heavy in cream, cheese, or flour. The other elephant in the room is the MSG myth, but again David Chang has already beaten this issue to death.
For Hunan Legend,trying to educate customers about other options on menu and healthy varieties has been challenging. The best way to get people to try new dishes is people in the dining room just seeing what other people are getting.
Bad Customer Service
This stereotype was actually the only one that both Tammie and her daughter agreed on is actually true sometimes (albeit not at Hunan Legend, in my opinion). My experience in most Eastern restaurants (Iranian, Indian, Korean, etc. etc.) is that the customer is in fact always, wrong. Eat your food, pay for your food, and get out. That’s the social contract that you’ve agreed on when you’ve come into the restaurant. (Tammie chuckled and nodded slightly as I said this) I for one, could really careless about customer service, I just want the food. They said that in many authentic Chinese restaurants the service is actually not very good, the reason being that good service is often associated with bad food in Asia. You’re trying to cover up your bad food with good service. The other factor that often leads to the perception of bad service is that there is a language barrier often times between the customer and the restaurant.
All I can say is, stop worrying about getting your feelings hurt snowflake and go eat some food.
People you should root for
What I have observed over the many years as a patron at their restaurant and as a interviewer, is that these are some of the most dedicated people I have ever met. They come to work everyday and deliver a product that is exquisite, time after time. Meeting with them opened my eyes and made me want to give them my business even more, and that’s tough because I really love Chinese food as it is. The Owners of Hunan Legend are people you should root for. They’re not some soulless corporation that gives you nearly inedible food at outrageous prices. So the next time you think your Chinese food isn’t up to snuff compared to whatever your friends are Instagramming, just know that your Chinese food took just as much if not more effort and is just as good than whatever overpriced dish your friends are pumping up on social media.
